Fun and Laughter at the Expense of Others

I found this really interesting product the other day.  It's called PET HEAD and it's made by the BED HEAD brand.  It dyes your pets fur and if you have  a pet that has hair-like fur you can also use it to style.

My poor dog was the victim of this new found item.  See if you can tell where I painted her purple:

She was so cute as she sat there innocently letting me paint her white spots.  I have another dog who is mostly yellow so I couldn't find a place for the purple to stand out except for a tiny white patch on her nose:

It's cute isn't it?  Just something different to look at.  Kinda like it's fun when we see someone trip and fall or get pranked.  Come on, you know you chuckle (assuming they're okay, of course).  The reason I do it is because it gives me permission to be clumsy and to be real. 

Life is fun, good, interesting, and the age old advice of being able to laugh at yourself is still as priceless as ever.

Better than the Leading Brand

Isn't that statement a little contradictory?  If the product advertised was BETTER than the leading brand, wouldn't it be THE leading brand?  I guess there will always be brain teasers in life.

Last night I had a late night craving for something sweet.  I reached for some yummy Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs cereal.  To my dismay there was barely a  serving couple of spoonfuls left.  Before I had enough time to be sad about this tragic incident I noticed we also had another box of peanut butter puff cereal, only it was a store generic brand. 

As I opened the new box and began to pour the contents of it into my bowl already half full of the Reese's cereal I noticed something startling.  It looked EXACTLY the same.  It didn't look like a different version of a similar flavor.  It looked identical to what I had just poured in from the other box.  What do you think the taste was like?  You got it!  Exactly the same as the Reese's cereal.  I could not tell that they were two cereals from two different boxes and two different brands mixed in that bowl.

So I pondered upon the fetish some people have about getting "NAME" brand stuff.  First I thought about how powerful having a brand can be that it makes people pay more for the product just because of the name.  Second I thought of how much we in the USA allow brands to determine our class in life. 

If the choice was identical in price and you could choose a pair of no name jeans or ones with let's say a Louis Vuitton label (assuming branding still held its value), which would you choose?  I would certainly choose the Louis pair.  But of course the price tag for those different jeans varies tremendously, mostly because of the name.  Let's face it when it comes to dungarees they're made of pretty much the same thing.

When I go to the store, I always go for the least expensive food item.  I don't care who makes it.  It has always been my thought that they come from the same plant or factory and then the item just gets a different label put on the container.  Last night when I ate the cereal and saw the evidence with my own eyes it amused me to think about how we put so much clout on branding.  However, when money no longer becomes an issue I will have no problem paying for the brand (especially when it comes to clothes and such).  But as a matter of life or death, I really don't think there's a difference or that it should matter. 

I wonder what the prevelant thinkin gof society is on this subject.  Thoughts?